Jim Cella
PHOENIX—Goodbye July small ball, hello August long ball. The Dodgers pounded out a season-high four home runs and hammered Arizona 11-2 on Saturday. Los Angeles used three big innings to overpower the Diamondbacks and win for the fourth time in the last five games. The Dodgers are 6-3 on the season and tied atop the NL West standings. Arizona is 3-6 for the year.
GAME RECAP: Edwin Ríos, Matt Beaty, AJ Pollock and Chris Taylor all went yard for the Dodgers in the team’s highest run total of the season. Starting pitcher Julio Urías gave up an early run in the first, had to grind through 28 pitches in the opening frame, but then found his rhythm and retired the side in order in the second and third innings. Rios started the 4-HR attack when he teed off on a 1-0 fastball and sent the pitch off one of the stadium supports in deep right-center field. Rios’ second long ball of the year scored Joc Pederson who walked to lead off the inning. Beaty would follow two batters later and wrap an off-speed pitch around the right field foul pole into the Dodgers’ bullpen. The Diamondbacks cut the LA lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth on a double and single. The 1-run score wouldn’t last long as the Dodgers scored five times in the fifth and tacked on three more in the eighth to bring the final margin to eight. The 8-run win ties the largest margin of victory of 2020 for Los Angeles (9-1 vs. Giants on July 24).
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
SERIES STUFF: The Dodgers pulled even with the D-backs in the last 10 games in the series. The 10-game string is at .500 because Arizona took three of four from LA in the final series of last season. The Dodgers own a 13-9 record vs. AZ in the last two seasons and a 216-180 career mark against the upstart Diamondbacks.
THE KID FROM CULIÁCAN: Urías picked up his first win of the year by going 6.0 innings. He struck out five and only allowed one walk. Urías made 90 pitches in the six innings which matches the number of 90-pitch outings he had in all of last season. He made 91 in a start against Milwaukee on Apr. 18 when he also went 6.0 innings. It is only the fourth time in his career that he has reached the 90-pitch mark in an outing. Urías is 1-0 in 2020 with a 2.45 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP.
NO. 3 WITH A BULLET: A night after taking a foul ball off his calf, Corey Seager was back in the starting lineup and – for the first time this season – he was in the Top 3 in the batting order. Hitting out of the 3-hole, Seager produced the only multiple-hit game of any Dodger in the lineup. He barreled the ball on all four at-bats, producing a wall-pounding double to left field in the third and adding a single to right in the fifth. It was Seager’s second straight multi-hit game and third of the year. The double was his third of the year and first in six games. Seager has now hit safely in five straight games and has at least one base knock in eight of the team’s nine games.
Seager leads the team in hits (13) and home runs (3) and is second on the team in average (.361) and OBP (.425).
2 TIMES: Smart money might have had Max Muncy on top of the Dodgers’ HR list after nine game but only the longshot players would have had Ríos and Pollock as the team’s No.3 long ball threats. Ríos’ moon shot in the fourth was his second of the year and sixth of his career. He has now hit a homer in every 9.5 major league at-bats (insert muscle flex emoji here). Pollock wasted little time in answering Rios as he cranked away on a first-pitch changeup in the fifth to record his second long ball of the year.
2 TIMES 2: From the obscure coincidence file, Pederson was on the run-scoring end of both Rios’ and Pollocks’ tape measure shots. He walked in the fourth to score on Rios’ HR and had an infield single to trot home after Pollock’s left-field laser.
BARRELS ARE NOT OVERRATED: Taylor came off the bench in the eighth to pinch hit for Seager and proceeded to put up a 377-foot oppo long ball that scored Muncy and Kiké Hernández. It was Taylor’s first HR of the year and continued his hot hitting streak from Friday when he went 2-for-3.
OVER FIVE FOOTBALL FIELDS OF LONG BALLS: The four home runs hit by the Dodgers totaled 1,583 feet which is just past an NCAA touchback spot past the length of five football fields.
TRIPLE SHOT FOR STRESS RELIEF: Justin Turner snapped a 3-game hitless streak when he came through with a triple to center field in the 5-run fifth. It was the first 3-bagger of the year for any Dodgers’ player and scored Mookie Betts and Seager. Turner now has 992 career hits and needs eight more to reach the 1,000-hit milestone. He is also 20 RBI shy of 500 for his career.
6-PACK: Betts’ extended his hitting streak to six games with a 1-out double in the first inning. The 6-game streak is the longest of the year by any Dodgers (Turner had a 5-game streak). During the last six games Betts is hitting .346 (9-for-26). He was 1-for-3 on Saturday and upped his season average to .262.
BLUE PEN BACK ON TRACK: The trio of Brusdar Graterol, Dennis Santana and Jake McGee combined for three scoreless, hitless frames. They fanned four and needed only 39 pitches to get through the three innings.
ON DECK: The Dodgers will go for the series win in the finale on Sunday afternoon at 1:10 p.m. The game will feature the season debut of future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw, who was put on the injured list with back soreness right before the season opener, has thrown multiple side sessions since July 23 and has passed every test on his way back. Kershaw owns a 2.84 ERA with a 1.079 WHIP in his 33 career starts against Arizona. He has 228 Ks in 205.2 innings pitched. Last year Kershaw was 0-1 with a 7.36 ERA and a 1.364 WHIP in his two start vs. the D-backs – both of which came in AZ. The Diamondbacks will pin their hopes for a series split on the right arm of Merrill Kelly. Kelly was the ace of the Diamondbacks’ staff in the first trip through the rotation. He went 7.2 innings and allowed only one earned run in a 3-1 win at Texas. Kelly is in his second major league season. Last year he was 13-14 with a 4.42 and a 1.315 WHIP in his 32 starts for Arizona. Kelly pitched twice against LA last season and didn’t come away with a decision. He had 5.40 ERA and a 1.300 WHIP in 10.0 innings pitched.
IN THE HOLE: Los Angeles will complete their 9-game road trip when they start a 3-games series at San Diego on Monday. Walker Buehler will draw his second start of the year in the opener.
